Thursday, August 17, 2017

Their music vogues between contemporary classical and jazz and 'Sea of Tranquillity' is a contemporary mix of electronics and double bass inspired by Mare Tranquillitatis (Latin for Sea of Tranquillity), a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon, once thought to be an ocean. The basin has irregular margins and lacks a defined multiple-ringed structure, likely formed as a result of a very large impact in the Moon’s early history more than 3.9 billion years ago.

In February 1965, the Ranger 8 spacecraft was deliberately crashed into the Mare Tranquillitatis, after successfully transmitting 7,137 close-range photographs of the Moon in the final 23 minutes of its mission.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

OAS005 : Even Less / Soundtrack to a Wasted DayOriginally released in 2012, the Ep 'Soundtrack to a wasted day' was recorded by Chinese based band Even Less.The very first Depressive Rock band in China. Beautiful and melancholic music produced under the influences of Katatonia, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Anathema, Mono etc. Features 3 studio tracks plus an excellent cover of "The Day the World Went Away" by Nine Inch Nails. Light a cigarette and enjoy this melancholic moment.One of his member is playing now under the patronyme of Broken Thoughts and is producing amazing electronic music. I encourage you to discover his Bandcamp page.There is a review of the EP in Aristocrazia webzine written by LordPist:

"When it comes to alternative music in China, Beijing is the most frequently mentioned area when speaking about interesting bands and "Even Less" is no exception to this rule. This project was clearly inspired by Porcupine Tree (the name being taken from a track off the "Stupid Dream" album) and it only takes a snippet of the visual, lyrical and musical aspects to acknowledge the all but hidden influence that Steven Wilson's brainchild has had on this band.

Even Less formed in 2009 and in about a couple of years got noticed by the most dedicated Chinese rock/metal label, Pest Productions, which is doing so much in order to promote some of the top acts of the Chinese scene (this is also one of the relatively few bands that opted for English lyrics, helping them to get some international attention). After taking part in a compilation in 2011 with the "Opeth-esque" track "In Another Life", Luo Keju and the others went on to record their first official EP, "Soundtrack To A Wasted Day".

The dual lead vocalists combination is quite unusual for this kind of band, with guitarist Luo Keju and drummer Nong Andi alternating on vocals. The degree of similarity with the vocals and the interpretation of both Åkerfeldt and Renkse is nothing short of impressive. With eyes closed you could be forgiven for mistaking Even Less for Opeth or Katatonia.

Getting back to the EP, it contains four tracks, one of which is a cover of Nine Inch Nails' "The Day The World Went Away". The musical background is extremely clear, perhaps even too much, and sometimes it seems that Even Less don't want to try and get out of it as they are so comfortable within their environment. However, the disc is not a tough listen by any means and flows with ease. It works well as a "manifesto" and is coherent in both visual and musical terms. After all, this is something quite unheard of in China, especially played with such proficiency, even though this style is something that has been played around Europe for quite some time now."

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Off-10 years in a nutshell is a mix by German musician and DJ Morgen Wurde (see also OCD027) which celebrate the 10th anniversary of the label. The 4 parts mixes are based on ambient, downtempo and rock with a total of no less than 50 tracks representing around 65% of the label's music for about 3 hours and 17 minutes! And at a bargain price!So enjoy, listen, discover and don't hesitate to look for more once you like one of the artist of this gigantic mix!Kiekebiche is also back with a special made cover for the event!Digital release on the 28th of August 2017.Track listing:

The two of them have been collaborating a lot on various multi media art performances in the last few years, though they never recorded music together.Tetsuroh promised Ai to play together on the first occasion and as they were invited in the TOBI hotel (in Ise Mieshima prefecture) for a few days, they took the opportunity to finally try a few things.The songs were completely improvised in a few hours and days later, Tetsuroh started the editing and production work.'Moment Flow' is the result of their first collaborative music work and depict that 'Moment' where the music is finally 'Flowing' to us!

Tetsuroh San

Ai San

Ai Kisaragi 如月愛:

From the beginning of 2010, she works extensively on the theme "Travel of time and memories with paintings".

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Yuichi Onoue is one of the most busy artist on the alternative rock scene in Tokyo ( see OJP003Wananabani-en / Wani No Niwa and their poly-rhythm, irregular bars and unique melodic/chord progressions and OJP017 Androgena and their typical Japanese synth pop from the mid 90ties).

From the late 80ties until now, he has played solo or with a lot of bands from many different genres, from rock to electronic pop to post rock to avant folk...

He is also a very atypic musician as he always performs with house made instruments he created and invented such as the ribbon or the one chord electric viola...

This album was originally recorded and released in 2005. All the music was composed and played by Yuichi and is typical of what he does and loves to play.

The album was re mastered slightly by Pierre Vervloesem.This is what Yuichi San tells about the album in his own words:"On this album, I play the guitar, bass, and my handmade instruments -Ribbon Controller and Kaisatsuko. As well as the performance of more rare my musical instruments such as 24 equal temparament guitar, 24 equal temprament keyboard and Noise Synthesizer are featured. And not only musical instruments playing, I used computer for drum/percussion programming, algorithmic composition and digital signal processing. It includes ultimate bizarre original pop songs which are arranged so well. It can be said as culmination of mine on this point."

Original cd cover

The inside liner which explains the way and different instruments Yuichi used to record

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Another album by prolific American composer and performer John Franek (website) (see also ODG063 and OUC002).

Third release on Off 'I Have Not Seen as Others Saw' music is a radical change from his usual contemporary classical pieces for solo piano or orchestra.

If anything more than the powerful images the album shares in the two first tracks wall of sounds and then what seems to be a subtle clavecin track which starts gently to finally finishing the album with the same intensity than the previous pieces, it shows the darkest side of his electronic compositions and composing in general.

Friday, June 30, 2017

Spacial Roots was recorded live at Urban Guild, Kyoto, Japan on the 11/11/2014.This was the first time Leigh & Kawabata played together. Geoff Leighis well known for his work withHenry Cowin the early 70’s, as well ascontributing to fellow Virgin bands of the time Hatfield And The North, &Slapp Happy. In recent years he has collaborated with members ofFAUST, Porcupine Tree (as Ex-WiseHeads with bassist Colin Edwin), Nurse With Wound, and musicians such asMitsuru Tabata, Tatsuya Yoshida, & Nana Tsiboe. He is currently a member of Jump For Joy (featuring members of Faust & Henry Cow), andThe Artaud Beats(also featuring Henry Cow alumni).
He is also playing on the album 'Økapi & Aldo Kapi's Orchestra / Pardonne-moi, Olivier! (16 oiseaux pour Olivier Messiaen)' (see OCD035) released on Off.
Makoto “Speed Guru” Kawabata is best known as leader of Japanese psychedelic band Acid Mother Temple (Acid Mothers Temple Official), and for his innumerable collaborations& recordings with members of Gong (Gong - Band), Guru Guru, & many other Japanese and international musicians.

The duo first played together in Kyoto, Japan, in 2014. In 2016 they played eight concerts in Japan – material from these is in the pipeline for a 2nd CD release. Their music embraces a wide range of styles and influences, mixing elements of ethnic, rock, jazz, world, ambient, & electronica, and is completely improvised.Spacial Roots is one (slightly edited) continuous track, but the download version has been split into two tracks.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

A double compilation from the French band electrOZorus is a gift to everyone as it was actif from the beginning of the eighties till 2011 but never released a proper album.

Over the years they composed and created lots of songs and the time was right to finally listen to some of them.

Definitely crossing genres, from prog to hard to pop to jazz to musique concrète, they created something appart and particular. The words, always sing in French, are particularly important as Kriss the writer is also a poet and a lover of nice sentences and phrases.

The first cd is dedicated to all aspects of their music and is a collection that flies over all the years and music they did.

The second cd is taken out the last live concert they did completely in the dark (therefore the title ' Black Hole') to illustrate the movie from the same name.

We are in 1980 when Christophe Vandeputte, not yet Kriss Electro, meets Roland Duval, seven years his elder (Chris will borrow his pseudonym only thirty-two years later, when the band Electronique De France (see also OCD020), of which he is the leader, will be born); guitarist whose technique has been fueled by the rock of Jimi Hendrix, but also jazz by John Abercrombie and John McLaughlin, he is looking for a drummer to set up the best jazz-rock trio in the world, hope for any singer-guitarist of seventeen years of that time.

During the first rehearsal, Chris is very impressed by Roland's rhythmic independence and metronomic precision, whose vast musical culture in almost every field fascinates him: contemporary scholarly music, from John Adams' A to Z of Bernd Alois Zimmerman, or from the most confidential opposition rock of the time, such as the Etron Fou Leloublan group, and the very cerebral and yet so-lively jazz of Anthony Braxton. He soon realized that frequenting this guy is an extraordinary luck and from then on, he convinces him to play and create with him. It is thus that they both begin to dream of sonorous interactions, typographical, plastic or other worlds, judged by all to be irreconcilable, leaving to the shocks it provokes the chance to blow the categories and the accepted conventions.

At work in this curious dicephale group called electrOZorus: Roland makes cry sounds on Revox, Teac, Tascam, - all tape recorders with two or four tracks -, blowing, pinching, slamming, whipping, hammering metals, skins and woods, oboes, strings or synthesizing keys, while Chris invents constellations of chords, melodies and words, which he lays on his archipelago-like scores.

If the two comrades are solicited in other projects, sometimes together, when for example Chris brings Roland to participate in the recording of the next album of Lio, it is nevertheless in their previous dual formation that they seem to cross the time in the best way, taking back from their shelves, formerly magnetic, now digital, from 1980 to today, their creations untimely, at the time, but never against the current ...

Is electrOZorus a living dinosaur, a bird-headed god, a magician of electronics, a circular helix, that is, a curve drawn on a cylinder of revolution, such as in each of its points its tangent forms with OZ a constant angle of measurement? In any case, it is not of his time, but of all time in all times!

About Off

Off is a Belgian based label founded by Alain Lefebvre in 2007.
If you want to download, click on any Bandcamp buttons in the 'Listen and download' page. For the rest, just click on the name of the provider you want to buy from in each Believe player under the album you want to download.
If you want the real thing, you will find a BUY button linked to Paypal at the end of each cd presentation. You can also go on the Catalogue page and click on the cd you want to discover. You will find again the BUY button at the bottom of the page. Or go on the Shop page then just go to paypal.com and order at:
order@stilll.org , just leave a comment with which cds you want.